Just when I thought mud season was a total bust –
and Mother Nature was playing tricks –
because, let’s get real, spring in Vermont in early April? – not likely.
We schlepped the deck chairs from the shed and I enjoyed a lazy afternoon of lounging in the sun, gazing at my mountain (yep-mine), and reading.
Then – BAM…
I mentioned that Mother Nature was toying with me, didn’t I?
Where Curiosity Leads
My project for March was “curiosity” and I leapt right in. I began by reading Harry Potter – just for curiosity’s sake. Okay, cool – not really my thing. No matter. Moving on…
A poem just popped into my head (like that ever happens) and I managed to jot down, but can’t remember where…
And then my art journal – I pasted layer upon layer of colorful collage – all things “curious” – whatever that means…
And that’s when I got stuck.
I refuse to call it a total bust (even though it kind of is), because –
even though I have an unfinished poem somewhere, and an art journal page that’s a hot mess of meaningless colors and images, and I still have absolutely no idea how to tie photography in with any of this – sigh – curiosity still fuels my imagination and imagination keeps leading me down new paths.
Curiosity and my Bookish Path
It’s been a busy month in my little world of revising. After a slow and thorough read-through of my last round of revisions, I mixed things up a bit more – rearranging several scenes, raising the stakes for my beloved protagonist, and eliminating another major character. And now – about half way through another rewrite, I am excited about where my story is headed. It’s a slow process, but it’s not like I know what I’m doing – so there’s that.
Still – I’m calling it a win, this journey that started with curiosity about the process of writing a book. I’m further today than I was yesterday and the day before yesterday and the day before that…
Along this path of curiosity, I discovered a new Facebook group which led me to a new critique group and a new writing group – and as much as I complain about Facebook (I hate it, to put it mildly), I’m grateful that I was open to exploring. Now if I could just figure out how to make my Facebook page a worthwhile use of my time…
Lousy weather makes for awesome reading – and after Harry Potter (which was thankfully a quick read) I raced back to my old standby – mysteries. Few things brings me joy quite like a pile of books. This one is a combination of recently read and next on deck. 🙂
The snow is gone, which doesn’t mean it’s really gone – it’s not quite June, after all – but this is a sure sign of hope.
And a HUGE shoutout to my newsletter readers for helping me rename one of my characters. The next issue will land in your email next week and I have another task for you. You all are awesome!
I’m curious – if you were to take a photo or create an art journal page with the theme “Curiosity” – what would it look like? (asking for a friend…)
I hope you are well – I’d love to hear what you’re up to! What does curiosity look like to you?
8 responses to “Following curiosity”
Yes, Mother Nature has been fickle with the weather here in Nashua, NH too. We have had snow, torrential rains, lots of gusty wind and in between a few days of warm weather, 60s – low 70s, but not consistently enough to call it spring in New England, yet. Curious as to where that field of daffodils was located. Speaking of curiosity, lately with all the restrictions of traveling anywhere distant, I have been exploring places/things in the city we now call home. To me, curiosity looks like an adventure.
I like that curiosity looks like adventure! When I finished writing this post, I was beginning to think that curiosity might look like a long curvy path with lots of little side spurs. Still not sure what I’m going to make of that art page but it will come to me at some point.
Love all the photos, but the daffodil one is full of hope. Curiosity for me means opening myself to possibilities (old and new). I’m just finishing Sanjay Gupta’s Keep Sharp:Build a Better Brain at Any Age. Curiosity is important for brain health. Seeing your stack of books is always fun. I downloaded Indelible as a sample on my Kindle. I have pages and pages and pages of samples – I love that I’ll never run out of books. Enjoy your your emerging spring (while it lasts….).
I was excited to see all those daffodils! Curiosity definitely keeps my mind engaged. I started Indelible a couple days ago but haven’t had a lot of reading time.. I’ll let you know what I think after I finish.
I am curious how you like the new Jane Harper book- I really enjoyed her first three but this one just couldn’t grab me and I finally had to return it. But it could have very possibly been that my attention is lacking in a lot lately and not the book at all… let me know if I should give it another try.
For some reason, whenever I create a stack of books to read for the month, that one is always on the bottom and I never quite get to it. Theoretically, it should be at the top of the stack for next month – but that’s not how I roll (lol). I’ll let you know my thoughts if I ever manage to read it!
When you said “curiosity” my first thought was a squirrel – they always seems to be curious and exploring all and everything. Apart from that I am curious how post-pandemic life (if we ever fully get there) will look like, whether we have learned something these past 14 months.
I love the image of the daffodils, how very beautiful. Those are just faint memories here. Good luck with re-writing your mystery – enjoy the process.
I’m curious about post-pandemic life, also. All in all, Vermont weathered it well which was somewhat surprising considering the volume of people from out of state who flood into our area every week. But – most of our activities are outdoors – even in the winter – so maybe that’s the difference.
Uh-oh – squirrels – after having to evict them from our attic, I do everything I can to keep them away from my house! But yes – they are always curious!